Cato's farm management: eclogues from the De re rustica of M. Porcius Cato

•

Cato's
Farm Management

Cato's
Farm Management

Eclogues from the De Re Rustica of

M. Porcius Cato, done into

English, with notes of other

excursions in the pleasant

paths of agronomic

literature

By

A Virginia Farmer

Obscurata diu poptdo bonus eruet atque
Proferei in Iticem speciosa vocabula rerum
Quae priscis memoraia Caionibus atque Cethegis
Nunc situs informis premit et deserta vetustas.

HORATI Epist. II. 2, IIS.

Privately Printed
1910

Add to tib,

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ARCHITc-CTiJRf

Preface

While Cato is readily accessible in
French and in German, the only re-
corded English translation, that of
the Rev. Thos. Owen published at
London in 1803, is at once inadequate
and scarce. For this reason the pres-
ent editor has ventured to translate
from the Latin (and to annotate from
the works of other ancient agro-
nomes) those portions of the De re
rustica which are of enduring inter-
est. While this was done for the

ntertainment of the translator, with
in echo of Horace's prayer (Sat.
[I, 6, 14) that everything on his
farm might grow fat except his
A^its, it is now submitted in the hope

hat other American farmers may
:hus be afforded the pleasure of mak-

^37

Preface

ing the acquaintance of the rare old
Roman, and at the same time be
stimulated to more intensive agri-
cultural practice by realizing how
well such things were done two
thousand years ago.

F. H.

Belvoir,
Fauquier County, Virginia,
December, 1910.

I

Contents

PAGE

Note upon Cato and the Latin Agronomes 9

Of the Farmer - - - - - 17

Of Buying the Farm - - - - 19

Of the Duties of the Owner - - 22

Of Laying out the Farm - - - 27

Of Stocking the Farm - - - - 32

Of the Duties of the Overseer - - 33

Of the Duties of the Housekeeper - - 37

Of the Hands ----- 39

Of Draining - - - - - 41

Of Preparing the Seed Bed - - - 42

Of Manure 44

Of Soil Improvement - - - - 46

Of Planting 47

Of Forage Crops - - - - 49

Of Pastures 50

Of Feeding Live Stock - - - 52

Of the Care of Live Stock - - - 55

Of Curing Hams - - - - 58

Note Upon Cato and the
Latin Agronomes

The ancient literature of farm
management was voluminous. Varro
cites fifty Greek authors on the sub-
ject whose works he knew, beginning
with Hesiod and Xenophon. Magon
of Carthage wrote a treatise in the
Punic tongue which was so highly
esteemed that the Roman Senate or-
dered it translated into Latin, but it
is now lost to us except in the literary
tradition. Varro, the polymath, who
was styled by his contemporary Cic-
ero the most learned Roman, wrote a
De re rustica among the six hundred
and twenty books in which he ex-
plored every branch of human activ-
ity: he was indeed so prolific and so
various that we might almost indulge
[9]

Note

of him the philosophic doubt, which
has been expressed of a modern Eng-
lish litterateur, that he was not a man
but a syndicate. Varro's essay in rural
science, which takes the form of a
pleasant exchange of experience be-
tween a company of Roman country
gentlemen, acknowledges its obliga-
tion to Magon and the Greeks, as
well as to Cato and was in turn the
inspiration of Columella who wrote
in Spain his mellifluous and charm-
ing book during the reign of Tiber-
ius. In the IV Century Palladius
followed with another De re rustica,
which was diligently read during the
Dark Ages, and was undoubtedly
suited to them, for it is very dull.
All of these works are instructive,
but, like the Georgics of Virgil, they
are the productions of literary men
rather than practical farmers and are
more profitable in the library than
the barnyard : they smell more of the

[10]

I

Note

lamp than of the dunghill. But in
the T>e re rustica of Cato we have
a convincingly practical handbook.

Marcus Porcius Cato died one
hundred and forty-nine years before
the Christian era. He is usually
called the Censor, to distinguish him
from his great grandson of the same
name, '^the last republican," who
committed suicide at Utica, when

'^cuncta terrarum subacid
Praeter atrocem animum Catonisf*

The elder Cato was the type of
Roman produced by the most vigor-
ous days of the republic. Born at
Tusculum on the narrow acres which
his peasant forefathers had tilled in
the intervals of military service, he
commenced advocate at the coun-
try assizes, followed his fortunes to
Rome and there became a leader of
the metropolitan bar. He saw gal-
ant military service in Greece and
in Spain, commanded an army, held
[III

Note

all the curule offices of state and
ended a contentious life in the Sen-
ate denouncing Carthage and the de-
generacy of the times.

He was an upstanding man, as
coarse as he was vigorous in mind
and in body, much the type of Abra-
ham Lincoln, but without Lincoln's
gentleness and sympathy. He was
strenuous (he too used the word) as
Theodore Roosevelt in his tilts at
what he considered evil, and he made
as many quotable phrases in rough
and tumble controversy as our recent
President. Roman literature is full
of anecdotes about him and his wise
and witty sayings.

Unlike many men who have de-
voted a toilsome youth to agricul-
tural labor, when he attained fame
and fortune he maintained his inter-
est in his farm, and wrote the De re
rustica in his green old age. It tells
what sort of a farm manager he him-

[12]

Note

self was, and, though a mere collec-
tion of random notes, sets forth more
shrewd common sense and agronomic
experience than it is possible to pack
into the same number of English
words. It was the first book on the
subject which was written in Latin;
indeed, it was one of the very first
books written in that vernacular at
all, and it remains today of much
more than antiquarian interest. In
fact, we are just beginning to learn
again the value of some of the things
Cato practised: for example, he
taught intense cultivation, the use of
leguminous plants for soil improve-
ment, the importance of live stock
in a system of general farming, and
the effective preservation of manure.
Barring some developments of bac-
terial science like the ingenious
"nodular hypothesis" in respect to
legumes, the student of farm manage-
ment today could not go far wrong
[13I

Note

if he founded modern instances of
agricultural experience upon the
wise saws of this sturdy old heathen.
All the subsequent Latin writers
on farm management quoted Cato
with respect, even when they differed
from him, and no one who reads him
can do less today.

u

Cato's
Farm Management

Cato's
Farm Management

THE pursuits of commerce
would be as admirable as they
are profitable if they were not sub-
ject to so great risks: and so, like-
wise, of banking, if it was always
honestly conducted. For our ances-
tors considered, and so ordained in
their laws, that, while the thief
should be cast in double damages,
the usurer should make four-fold
restitution. From this we may judge
how much less desirable a citizen
they esteemed the banker than the
thief. When they sought to com-
mend an honest man, they termed
him good husbandman, good farmer.
This they rated the superlative of

[I7l.

Cato*s Farm Management

praise." Personally, I think highly
of a man actively and diligently
engaged in commerce, who seeks
thereby to make his fortune, yet, as
I have said, his career is full of
risks and pitfalls. But it is from
the tillers of the soil that spring the
best citizens, the stanchest soldiers;
and theirs are the enduring rewards
which are most grateful and least
envied. Such as devote themselves
to that pursuit are least of all men
given to evil counsels.

1 It was perhaps this encomium upon the farmer
at the expense of the banker which inspired Horace's
friend Alfius to withdraw his capital from his bank-
ing business and dream a delicious idyl of a simple
carefree country life: but, it will be recalled (Epode
II, the famous "Beatus tile qui procul negotiis") that
Alfius, like many a modern amateur farmer, re-
cruited from town, soon repented that he had ever
listened to the alluring call of "back to the land"
and after a few weeks of disillusion in the country,
returned to town and sought to get his money out
again at usury.

Columella (I, praef.) is not content with Cato's
contrast of the virtue of the farmer with the iniquity
of the banker, but he brings in the lawyer's profes-
sion for animadversion also. This, he says, the an-
cient Romans used to term a canine profession, be-
cause it consisted in barking at the rich.

[18]

I

Cato^s Farm Management

And now, to get to my subject,
these observations will serve as pref-
ace to what I have promised to dis-
cuss.

Of Buying the Farm
{ly When you have decided to
purchase a farm, be careful not to
buy rashly; do not spare your visits
and be not content with a single tour
of inspection. The more you go, the
more will the place please you, if it
be worth your attention. Give heed
to the appearance of the neighbor-
hood,— a flourishing country should
show its prosperity. "When you go
in, look about, so that, when needs
be, you can find your way out."

Take care that you choose a good
climate, not subject to destructive
storms, and a soil that is naturally
strong. If possible, your farm

^The Roman numerals at the beginning of the
paragraphs indicate the chapters of Cato from which
they are translated.

I19I

Cato's Farm Management

should be at the foot of a mountain,
looking to the West, in a healthy
situation, where labor and cattle can
be had, well watered, near a good
sized town, and either on the sea or
a navigable river, or else on a good
and much frequented road. Choose
a place which has not often changed
ownership, one which is sold unwill-
ingly, that has buildings in good re-
pair.

Beware that you do not rashly con-
temn the experience of others. It is
better to buy from a man who has
farmed successfully and built well.'

1 This, of course, means buying at a high price,
except in extraordinary cases. There is another sys-
tem of agriculture which admits of the pride of mak-
ing two blades of grass grow where none was before,
and the profit which comes of buying cheap and sell-
ing dear. This is farming for improvement, an art
which was well described two hundred years before
Cato. Xenophon {Oeconomicus XX, 22) says:

"For those who are able to attend to their affairs,
however, and who will apply themselves to agricul-
ture earnestly, my father both practiced himself and
taught me a most successful method of making prof-
it for he would never allow me to buy ground al-
ready cultivated, but exhorted me to purchase such

[20]

Cato^s Farm Management

When you inspect the farm, look
to see how many wine presses and
storage vats there are; where there
are none of these you can judge what
the harvest is. On the other hand, it
is not the number of farming imple-
ments, but what is done with them,
that counts. Where you find few
tools, it is not an expensive farm to
operate. Know that with a farm,
as with a man, however productive
it may be, if it has the spending habit,
not much will be left over.^

as from want of care or want of means in those who
had possessed it, was left untilled and unplanted.
He used to say that well cultivated land cost a
great sum of money and admitted of no improve-
ment, and he considered that land which is unsuscep-
tible of improvement did not give the same pleasure
to the owner as other land, but he thought that
whatever a person had or bought up that was con-
tinually growing better afforded him the highest
gratification."

1 Every rural community in the Eastern part of
the United States has grown familiar with the con-
trast between the intelligent amateur, who, while
endeavoring earnestly to set an example of good
agriculture, fails to make expenses out of his land,
and the born farmer who is self-supporting in the
practice of methods contemned by the agricultural

[21]

C a t o ' s Farm Management

Of the Duties of the Owner
(ll) When you have arrived at
your country house and have saluted
your household, you should make the
rounds of the farm the same day, if
possible; if not, then certainly the
next day. When you have observed
how the field work has progressed,
what things have been done, and
what remains undone, you should

colleges. Too often the conclusion is drawn that
scientific agriculture will not pay; but Cato puts his
finger on the true reason. The man who does not
depend on his land for his living too often permits
his farm to get what Cato calls the "spending habit."
Pliny (H. N. XVIII, 7) makes some pertinent obser-
vations on the subject:

"I may possibly appear guilty of some degree of
rashness in making mention of a maxim of the an-
cients which will very probably be looked upon as
quite incredible, 'that nothing is so disadvantageous
as to cultivate land in the highest style of perfec-
tion.' "

And he illustrates by the example of a Roman
gentleman, who, like Arthur Young in XVIII Cen-
tury England, wasted a large fortune in an attempt
to bring his lands to perfect cultivation. "To culti-
vate land well is absolutely necessary," Pliny con-
tinues, "but to cultivate it in the very highest style
is mere extravagance, unless, indeed, the work is
done by the hands of a man's own family, his
tenants, or those whom he is obliged to keep at any
rate."

[22]

Cato's Farm Management

summon your overseer the next day,
and should call for a report of what
work has been done in good season
and why it has not been possible to
complete the rest, and what wine and
corn and other crops have been gath-
ered. When you are advised on these
points you should make your own
calculation of the time necessary for
the work, if there does not appear to
you to have been enough accom-
plished. The overseer will report that
he himself has worked diligently, but
that some slaves have been sick and
others truant, the weather has been
bad, and that it has been necessary
to work the public roads. When he
has given these and many other ex-
cuses, you should recall to his atten-
tion the program of work which you
had laid out for him on your last
visit and compare it with the results
attained. If the weather has been
bad, count how many stormy days
[23]

C at 0* s Farm Management

there have been, and rehearse what
work could have been done despite
the rain, such as washing and pitch-
ing the wine vats, cleaning out the
barns, sorting the grain, hauling out
and composting the manure, clean-
ing seed, mending the old gear and
making new, mending the smocks and
hoods furnished for the hands. On
feast days the old ditches should be
mended, the public roads worked,
briers cut down, the garden dug, the
meadow cleaned, the hedges trimmed
and the clippings collected and
burned, the fish pond cleaned out.
On such days, furthermore, the
slaves' rations should be cut down as
compared with what is allowed when
they are working in the fields in fine
weather.

When this routine has been dis-
cussed quietly and with good humor
and is thoroughly understood by the
overseer, you should give orders for
[24]

Cato*s Farm Management

the completion of the work which
has been neglected.

The accounts of money, supplies
and provisions should then be con-
sidered. The overseer should report
what wine and oil has been sold, what
price he got, what is on hand, and
what remains for sale. Security-
should be taken for such accounts as
ought to be secured. All other un-
settled matters should be agreed
upon. If any thing is needed for the
coming year, it should be bought;
every thing which is not needed
should be sold. Whatever there is
for lease should be leased. Orders
should be given (and take care that
they are in writing) for all work
which next it is desired to have done
on the farm or let to contract. You
should go over the cattle and deter-
mine what is to be sold. You should
sell the oil, if you can get your price,
the surplus wine and corn, the old

[251

Cato*s Farm Management

cattle, the worn out oxen, and the cull
sheep, the wool and the hides, the old
and sick slaves, and if any thing else
is superfluous you should sell that.

The appetite of the good farmer is
to sell, not to buy.

(iv) Be a good neighbor. Do
not roughly give offense to your own
people. If the neighborhood re-
gards you kindly, you will find a
readier market for what you have to
sell, you will more easily get your
work done, either on the place or by
contract. If you build, your neigh-
bors will aid you with their services,
their cattle and their materials. If
any misfortune should overtake you
(which God forbid!) they will pro-
tect you with kindly interest.^

1 Hesiod (W. & D., 338) had already given this
same advice to the Greek farmer:

"Invite the man that loves thee to a feast, but let
alone thine enemy, and especially invite him that
dwelleth near thee, for if, mark you, anything un-
toward shall have happened at home neighbours arc
wont to come ungirt, but kinsfolk gird themselves
first."

[26]

C at o' s Farm Management

Of Laying Out the Farm

(l) If you ask me what is the best
disposition to make of your estate,
I would say that should you have
bought a farm of one hundred
jugera (about 66 acres) all told/
in the best situation, it should be
planted as follows: i° a vineyard, if
it promises a good yield, 2° an irri-
gated garden, 3° an osier bed, 4° an
olive yard, 5° a meadow, 6° a corn
field, 7° a wood lot, 8° a cultivated
orchard, and 9° a mast grove.^

^ This was an estate of average size, probably
within Virgil's precept, (Georgic II, 412.) "Laudato
ingentia rura, exiguum colito." Some scholars have
deemed this phrase a quotation from Cato. While
it smacks of his style, the thought is found in
Hesiod (W. & D., 643), "Commend a large vessel:
in a small one stow thy freight."

2 The philosophy of Cato's plan of laying out a
farm is found in the agricultural history of the
Romans down to the time of the Punic wars.
Mommsen (II, 370) gives the facts, and Ferrero in
his first chapter makes brilliant use of them. There
is sketched the old peasant aristocrat living on his
few acres, his decay and the creation of compara-
tively large estates worked by slaves in charge of
overseers, which followed the conquest of the Italian

[27]

C at o' s Farm Management

(III) In his youth, the farmer
ought, diligently to plant his land,
but he should ponder before he
builds. Planting does not require re-
flection, but demands action. It is
time enough to build when you have
reached your thirty-sixth year, if you
have farmed your land well mean-
while. When you do build, let your
buildings be proportioned to your
estate, and your estate to your build-

states about B. C. 300. This was the civilization in
which Cato had been reared, but in his time another
important change was taking place. The Roman
frontier was again widened by the conquest of the
Mediterranean basin: the acquisition of Sicily and
Sardinia ended breadstuff farming as the staple on
the Italian peninsular. The competition of the broad
and fertile acres of those great Islands had the ef-
fect in Italy which the cultivation of the Dakota
wheat lands had upon the grain farming of New
York and Virginia. About 150 B. C. the vine and
the olive became the staples of Italy and corn was
susperseded. Although this was not accomplished
until after Cato's death he foresaw it, and recom-
mended that a farm be laid out accordingly, and his
scheme of putting one's reliance upon the vine and
the olive was doubtless very advanced doctrine, when
it first found expression. As to Cato's views upon
the value of pasture land on a large estate (the
latifundia) see post p. 52.

[28I

Cato*s Farm Management

ings.^ It is fitting that the farm
buildings should be well constructed,
that you should have ample oil cel-
lars and wine vats, and a good supply
of casks, so that you can wait for high
prices, something which will re-
dound to your honour, your profit
and your self-respect.

(iv) Build your dwelling house
in accordance with your means. If
you build well in a good situation
and on a good property, and furnish
the house suitably for country life,
you will come there more often and
more willingly.^ The farm will then
be better, fewer mistakes will be

1 Pliny quotes Cato as advising to buy what others
have built rather then build oneself, and thus, as he
says, enjoy the fruits of another's folly. The
cacoethes edificandi is a familiar disease among
country gentlemen.

2 Columella (I, 4) makes the acute observation
that the country house should also be agreeable to
the owner's wife if he wishes to get the full measure
of enjoyment out of it. Magon, the Carthaginian,
advised "if you buy a farm, sell your house in town,
lest you be tempted to prefer the cultivation of the
urban gods to those of the country."

[29I

C a t o ' s Farm Management

made, and you will get larger crops.
The face of the master is good for
the land.'

(Vl) Plant elm trees along the
roads and fence rows, so that you may
have the leaves to feed the sheep and
cattle, and the timber will be avail-
able if you need it. If any where
there are banks of streams or wet

1 According to German scholarship the accepted
text of Cato's version of this immemorial epigram is
a model of the brevity which is the test of wit,
Frons occipitio prior est. Pliny, probably quoting
from memory, expands it to Frons domini plus
prodest quam occipitium. Palladius (I, 6) gives
another version: Praesentia domini provectus est
agri. It is found in some form in alniost every
book on agriculture since Cato: in La Maison Rusti-
que that delightful XVI Century thesaurus of
French agricultural lore, in the innumerable works
of Gervase Markham that XVII Century L. H.
Bailey, and in the pleasant XIX Century essays of
Donald G. Mitchell. The present editor saw it
recently in the German comic paper Fliegende
Blatter. But the jest is much older than Cato. In
Xenophon's Oeconomicus (XII, 20) it appears in
another form:

"The reply attributed to the barbarian," added
Ischomachus, "appears to me to be exceedingly to
the purpose, for when the King of Persia having met
with a fine horse and wishing to have it fattened
as soon as possible, asked one of those who were con-
sidered knowing about horses what would fatten a
horse soonest, it is said that he answered 'the master's
eye.' "

[30I

C a t 0 ^ s Farm Management

places, there plant reeds, and sur-
round them with willows that the
osiers may serve to tie the vines.

(vil) It is most convenient to
set out the land nearest the house as
an orchard, whence fire wood and
faggots may be sold and the supply
of the master obtained. In this en-
closure should be planted everything
fitting to the land and vines should be
married to the trees. ^

(vill) Near the house lay out
also a garden with garland flowers
and vegetables ^ of all kinds, and

1 The English word "orchard" scarcely translates
arbustum, but every one who has been in Italy will
recall the endless procession of small fields of maize
and rye and alfalfa through which serried ranks of
feathery elm trees, linked with the charming drop
and garland of the vines, seem to dance toward one
in the brilliant sunlight, like so many Greek maidens
on a frieze. These are arbusta.

2 Cato was a strong advocate of the cabbage ; he
called it the best of the vegetables and urged that it
be planted in every garden for health and happiness.
Horace records (Odes. Ill, 2i, ii) that old Cato's
virtue was frequently warmed with wine, and
Cato himself explains (CLVI) how this could be
accomplished without loss of dignity, for, he says, if,

[31]

Cato^s Farm Management

set it about with myrtle hedges, both
white and black, as well as Delphic
and Cyprian laurel.

Of Stocking the Farm
(x) An olive farm of two hun-
dred and forty jugera (i6o acres)
ought to be stocked as follows: an
overseer, a house keeper, five labor-
ers, three ox drivers, one swineherd,
one ass driver, one shepherd; in all
thirteen hands: three pair of oxen,^

after you have dined well, you will eat five cabbage
leaves they will make you feel as if you had had
nothing to drink, so that you can drink as much more
as you wish, 'bibesque quantum 'voles!'

1 Henry Home, Lord Kames, a Scots judge of the
XVni Century, whom Dr. Johnson considered a bet-
ter farmer than judge and a better judge than
scholar, but who had many of the characteristics
of our priscus Cato, argues in his ingenious
Gentleman Farmer against the expense of plough-
ing with horses and urges a return to oxen.
He points out that horses involve a large original
investment, are worn out in farm work, and after
their prime steadily depreciate in value; while, on
the other hand, the ox can be fattened for market
when his usefulness as a draught animal is over,
and then sell for more than his original cost; that
he is less subject to infirmities than the horse; can be
fed per tractive unit more economically and give

[32 1

C a t o ' s Farm Management

three asses with pack saddles, to haul
out the manure, one other ass, and
one hundred sheep.^

Of the Duties of the Overseer ^
(v) These are the duties of the
overseer: He should maintain dis-
cipline. He should observe the feast
days. He should respect the rights
of others and steadfastly uphold his

more valuable manure. These are strong arguments
where the cost of human labor is small and econ-
omical farm management does not require that the
time of the ploughman shall be limited if the unit
cost of ploughing is to be reasonable. The ox is
slow, but in slave times he might reasonably have
been preferred to the horse. Today Lord Kames,
(or even old Hesiod, who urged that a ploughman
of forty year and a yoke of eight year steers be em-
ployed because they turned a more deliberate and so
a better furrow) would be considering the economi-
cal practicability of the gasolene motor as tractive
power for a gang of "crooked" plows.

^ There were in addition, of course, milch goats,
hogs, pigeons and fowls. Cato adds a long list of
implements and other necessary equipment. Pliny
quotes Cato, "whatever can be done by the help of
the ass costs the least money."

2 The Roman overseer was usually a superior, and
often a much indulged, slave. Cf. Horace's letter
(Epist. I, 14) to his overseer.

[33]

C a t 0 ^ s Farm Management

own. He should settle all quarrels
among the hands; if any one is at
fault he should administer the pun-
ishment. He should take care that
no one on the place is in want, or
lacks food or drink; in this respect
he can afford to be generous, for he
will thus more easily prevent pick-
ing and stealing.^

Unless the overseer is of evil mind,
he will himself do no wrong, but if
he permits wrong-doing by others,
the master should not suffer such in-
dulgence to pass with impunity. He
should show appreciation of cour-
tesy, to encourage others to practice

1 This was the traditional wisdom which was
preached also in Virginia in slave times. In his
Arator (1817) Col. John Taylor of Caroline says of
agricultural slaves:

"The best source for securing their happiness,
their honesty and their usefulness is their food. *
* * * One great value of establishing a com-
fortable diet for slaves is its convenience as an in-
strument of reward and punishment, so powerful as
almost to abolish the thefts which often diminish
considerably the owner's ability to provide for
them."

[34]

C a t 0^ s Farm Management

it. He should not be given to gad-
ding or conviviality, but should be
always sober. He should keep the
hands busy, and should see that they
do what the master has ordered. He
should not think that he knows more
than his master. The friends of the
master should be his friends, and he
should give heed to those whom the
master has recommended to him. He
should confine his religious practices
to church on Sunday,^ or to his own
house.

He should lend money to no man
unbidden by the master, but what the
master has lent he should collect. He
should never lend any seed reserved
for sowing, feed, corn, wine, or oil,
but he should have relations with two
or three others farms with which he
can exchange things needed in emer-
gency. He should state his accounts

1 "Compitalibus in compito," literally "the cross
roads altar on festival days."

l35l

Cato's Farm Management

with his master frequently. He
should not keep any hired men or
day hands longer than is necessary.
He should not sell anything without
the knowledge of the master, nor
should he conceal anything from the
master. He should not have any
hangers-on, nor should he consult any
soothsayer, fortune teller, necroman-
cer, or astrologer. He should not
spare seed in sowing, for that is bad
economy. He should strive to be ex-
pert in all kinds of farm work, and,
without exhausting himself, often
lend a hand. By so doing, he will
better understand the point of view
of his hands, and they will work more
contentedly; moreover, he will have
less inclination to gad, his health will
be better, and he will sleep more re-
freshingly.

First up in the morning, he should
be the last to go to bed at night; and
before he does, he should see that the
[36I

C a t o' s Farm Management

farm gates are closed, and that each
of the hands is in his own bed, that
the stock have been fed. He should
see that the best of care is taken of the
oxen, and should pay the highest
compliments to the teamsters who
keep their cattle in the best condition.
He should see to it that the plows and
plow shares are kept in good repair.
Plan all the work in ample time, for
so it is with farm work, if one thing
is done late, everything will be late.
(XXXIX) When it rains try to find
something to do indoors. Clean
up, rather than remain idle. Remem-
ber that while work may stop, ex-
penses still go on.

Of the Duties of the Housekeeper
(CXLlll) The overseer should be
responsible for the duties of the
house keeper. If the master has
given her to you for a wife, you
should be satisfied with her, and she

l37l

Cato's Farm Management

should respect you. Require that she
be not given to wasteful habits ; that
she does not gossip with the neigh-
bors and other women. She should
not receive visitors either in the
kitchen or in her own quarters. She
should not go out to parties, nor
should she gad about.^ She should
not practise religious observances,
nor should she ask others to do so for
her without the permission of the
master or the mistress. Remember
that the master practises religion for
the entire household. She should be
neat in appearance and should keep
the house swept and garnished.
Every night before she goes to bed
she should see that the hearth is
swept and clean. On the Kalends,
the Ides, the Nones, and on all feast
days, she should hang a garland over
the hearth. On those days also she

1 It is evident that Cato's housekeeper would
have welcomed a visit from Mr. Roosevelt's Rural
Uplift Commission.

[38I .

C at 0* s Farm Management

should pray fervently to the house-
hold gods. She should take care that
she has food cooked for you and for
the hands. She should have plenty
of chickens and an abundance of
eggs."^ She should diligently put up
all kinds of preserves every year.

Of the Hands

(lvi) The following are the cus-
tomary allowances for food: For
the hands, four pecks of meal for the
winter, and four and one-half for the
summer. For the overseer, the house
keeper, the wagoner, the shepherd,
three pecks each. For the slaves,
four pounds of bread for the winter,
but when they begin to cultivate the
vines this is increased to five pounds
until the figs are ripe, then return to
four pounds.

^ Cato is careful not to undertake to say how
this may be assured; another evidence of his wis-
dom.

[39I

Cato's Farm Management

(lvii) The sum of the wine al-
lowed for each hand per annum is
eight quadrantals, or Amphora, but
add in the proportion as they do
work. Ten quadrantals per annum
is not too much to allow them to
drink.

(lviii) Save the wind fall olives
as much as possible as relishes
for the hands. Later set aside such
of the ripe olives as will make the
least oil. Be careful to make them
go as far as possible. When the
olives are all eaten, give them fish
pickles and vinegar. One peck of
salt per annum is enough for each
hand.

(lix) Allow each hand a smock
and a cloak every other year. As of-
ten as you give out a smock or cloak
to any one take up the old one, so that
caps can be made out of it. A pair
of heavy wooden shoes should be
allowed every other year.^
[40]

I

C a t o' s Farm Management

Of Draining

(XLIII) If the land is wet, it
should be drained with trough
shaped ditches dug three feet wide
at the surface and one foot at the bot-
tom and four feet deep. Blind these
ditches with rock. If you have no
rock then fill them with green wil-
low poles braced crosswise. If you
have no poles, fill then with faggots.
Then dig lateral trenches three feet
deep and four feet wide in such way
that the water will flow from the
trenches into the ditches.

(CLV) In the winter surface
water should be drained off the
fields. On hillsides courses should be
kept clear for the water to flow off.
During the rainy season at the begin-
ning of Autumn is the greatest risk
from water. When it begins to rain
all the hands should go out with
picks and shovels and clear out the
drains so that the water may flow off
[41]

Cato^s Farm Management

into the roads, and the crops be pro-
tected.

Of Preparing the Seed Bed

(lxi) What is the first princi-
ple of good agriculture? To plow
welL What is the second? To plow
again; and the third is to manure.
When you plow corn land, plow well
and in good weather, lest you turn a
cloddy furrow. The other things of
good agriculture are to sow good
seed^ plentifully, to thin the young
sprouts, and to hill up the roots with
earth.

(v) Never plow rotten land^
nor drive flocks or carts across it.

1 Seed selection, which is now preached so earn-
estly by the Agricultural Department of the United
States as one of the things necessary to increase the
yield of wheat and corn, has ever been good prac-
tice. Virgil (Georgic I, 197) mentions it: "I have
seen those seeds on whose selection much time and
labour had been spent, nevertheless degenerate if
men did not every year rigorously separate by hand
all the largest specimens."

2 Pliny (H. N. XVII, 3) undertakes with more
rhetoric than conviction to explain this passage:

"Cato briefly, and in his peculiar manner, charac-

[42]

C a t o' s Farm M a n a g e 7n e n t

If care is not taken about this, the
land so abused will be barren for
three years.

terizes the defects that exist in the various soils.
'Take care,' he says, 'where the earth is rotten not to
shake it either with carts or by driving cattle over
it.' Now what are we to suppose that this term 'rot-
ten' means as applied to a soil, about which he is so
vastly apprehensive as to almost forbid our setting
foot upon it? Let us only form a comparison by
thinking what it is that constitutes rottenness in
wood and we shall find that the faults which are
held by him in such aversion are the being arid, full
of holes, rough, white, mouldly, worm eaten, in fact
just like pumice stone: and thus has Cato said more
in a single word than we could have possibly found
means to express in a description however long."

One is tempted to extend this note to include
Pliny's observations upon the tests of good soil if
only for the sake of his description of one of the
sweetest sensations of the farmer every where, the
aroma of new ploughed fertile land: —

"We may in this place appropriately make men-
tion of an opinion that has been pronounced by an
Italian writer also with reference to a matter of
luxury. Cicero, that other luminary of literature,
has made the following remark: "Those unguents
which have a taste of earth are better," says he,
"than those which smack of saflFron," it seeming to
him more to the purpose to express himself by the
word taste than smell. And such is the fact no
doubt, that soil is the best which has the flavour of
a perfume. If the question should be put to us,
what is this odour of the earth that is held in such
estimation; our answer is that it is the same that
is often to be recognized at the moment of sunset
without the necessity even of turning up the ground,
at the spots where the extremities of the rainbow
have been observed to meet the earth: as also, when

[43I

Cato^s Farm Management

Of Manure

(v) Plan to have a big compost
heap and take the best of care of the
manure. When it is hauled out see
that is well rotted and spread. The
Autumn is the time to do this.

(XXXVll) You can make manure of
litter, lupine straw, chaff, bean stalks,
husks and the leaves of ilex and of
oak.^

after long continued drought, the rain has soaked
the ground. Then it is that the earth exhales the
divine odour that is so peculiarly its own, and to
which, imparted to it by the sun, there is no per-
fume however sweet that can possibly be compared.
It is this odour which the earth, when turned up,
ought to emit, and which, when once found, can
never deceive any person : and this will be found the
best criterion for judging of the quality of the soil.
Such, too, is the odour that is usually perceived in
land newly cleared when an ancient forest has been
just cut down; its excellence is a thing that is uni-
versally admitted."

1 The ancients fully appreciated the importance of
manure in any conservative system of agriculture.
The Romans indeed sacrificed to Stercuius as a god.
Says Pliny (H. N. XVII, 9).

"In the times of Homer even the aged king
(Odyss. XXIV, 225) is represented as thus enrich-
ing the land by the labor of his own hands.

"Tradition reports that King Augeas was the first
in Greece to make use of manure, and that Hercules
introduced the practice into Italy, which country has,
however, immortalized the name of its King Ster-

[44]

C a t o ' s Farm Management

(XXX) Fold your sheep on the
land which you are about to seed,
and there feed them leaves.'

cutus, the son of Faunus, as claiming the honour
of the invention."

To the wise farmer the myth of the Augean
stables is the genesis of good agriculture.

Columella (II, 13) justly says about manure.
"Wherefore if it is, as it would seem to be, the
thing of the greatest value to the farmer, I con-
sider that it should be studied with the greatest
care, especially since the ancient authors, while they
have not altogether neglected it, have nevertheless
discussed it with too little elaboration." He goes
on (II, 14) to lay down rules about the compost
heap which should be written in letters of gold in
every farm house.

"I appreciate that there are certain kinds of farms
on which it is impossible to keep either live stock or
birds, yet even in such places it is a lazy farmer
who lacks manure: for he can collect leaves, rubbish
from the hedge rows, and droppings from the high
ways: without giving offence, and indeed earning
gratitude, he can cut ferns from his neighbor's
land: and all these things he can mingle with the
sweepings of the courtyard: he can dig a pit, like
that we have counselled for the protection of stable
manure, and there mix together ashes, sewage, and
straw, and indeed every waste thing which is
swept up on the place. But it is wise to bury a
piece of oak wood in the midst of this compost, for
that will prevent venomous snakes from lurking in
it. This will suffice for a farm without live stock."

One can see in Flanders today the happy land
smiling its appreciation of farm management such
as this, but what American farmer has yet learned
this kind of conservation of his natural resources.

^ The occupants of the motor cars which now roll
so swiftly and so comfortably along the French na-

[45]

C a t o* s Farm Management

Of Soil Improvement
(xxxvil) The things which are
harmful to corn land are to plow the
ground when it is rotten, and to
plant chick peas which are harvested
with the straw and are salt. Barley,
fenugreek and pulse all exhaust corn
land, as well as all other things which
are harvested with the straw. Do
not plant nut trees in the corn land.
On the other hand, lupines, field
beans and vetch manure corn land.*

tional highway from Paris to Tours, through the/
pleasant pays de Beauce, can see this admirable and
economical method of manuring still in practice.
The sheep are folded and fed at night, under the
watchful eye of the shepherd stretched at ease in
his wheeled cabin, on the land which was ploughed
the day before.

^ These of course are all legumes. The intelli-
gent farmer today sits under his shade tree and
meditates comfortably upon the least expensive and
most profitable labor on his farm, the countless
millions of beneficent bacteria who, his willing
slaves, are ceaselessly at work during hot weather
forming root tubercles on his legumes, be it clover
or cow peas, and so fixing for their lord the free at-
mospheric nitrogen contained in the soil. As
Macaulay would say, "every school boy knows" now
that leguminous root nodules are endotrophic raycor-
rhiza, — but the Romans did not! Nevertheless their

I46I

C a t o' s Farm Management

Of Planting
(XXXIV) Wherever the land is
cold and wet, sow there first, and last
of all in the warmest places.

empirical practice of soil improvement with legumes
was quite as good as ours. Varro (I, 23) explains
it more fully than Cato:

"Some lands are best suited for hay, some for
corn, some for wine and some for oil. So also some
lands are best suited for forage crops, among which
are basil, succotash, vetch, alfalfa, snail clover,
lupines. All things should not be sown in rich
land, nor should thin land be left unsown. For it is
better to sow in thin land those things which do not
require much nourishment, such as snail clover and
the legumes, except always chick pea (for this is a
legume as are the other plants which are not
reaped but from which the grain is plucked)
because those things which it is the custom to pluck
{legere) are called legumes. In rich land
should be sown those things which require much
nourishment, such as cabbage, corn, wheat and flax.
Certain plants are cultivated not so much for their
immediate yield of grain, as with forethought for the
coming year, because cut and left lying they improve
the land. So if land is too thin it is the practice to
plow in, for manure, lupines not yet podded, and
likewise the field bean, if it has not yet ripened so
that it is fitting to harvest the beans."

Columella (II, 13), and after him Palladius (I,
6), advises that legumes be plowed in green and not
merely as dry straw: he insists further that if the
hay is saved the stubble of legumes should be
promptly plowed, for he says the roots will evaporate
their own moisture and continue to pump the land
of its fertility unless they are at once turned over.

If the Romans followed this wise advice they were
better farmers than most of us today, for we are

[47]

C a t o ' s Farm Management

(vi) Where the soil is rich and
fertile, without shade, there the corn
land ought to be. Where the land

usually content to let the stubble dry out before plow-
ing.

The Romans were careful also about rotation of
crops. Virgil (Georgics I, 82) expresses the advice,
"Thus, too, your land will be refreshed by changing
the crops, and in the meantime there is not the
unproductiveness of untilled land."

Liming as an amendment of the soil and to correct
the acidity of old corn land, was apparently not
practiced by the Romans in Cato's time, but it would
have been most useful then as now in connection
with the ploughing in of green legumes. The
Romans, of course, had lime in plenty. Cato
(XXXVIII), and after him Palladius (I, 10), tells
how to burn limestone, but this was for masonry
work. Pliny (H. N, XVII, 4) says that liming for
soil improvement was known among the Transalpine
Gauls: "The Aedui and the Pictores have rendered
their lands remarkably fertile by the aid of lime
stone, which is also found to be particularly bene-
ficial to the olive and the vine."

The Romans did not have the fight against sour
land which is the heritage of the modern farmer
after years of continuous application to his land of
phosphoric and sulphuric acid in the form of mineral
fertilizers. What sour land the Romans had they
corrected with humus making barnyard manure, or
the rich compost which Cato recommends. They had,
however, a test for sourness of land which is still
practiced even where the convenient litmus paper is
available. Virgil (Georgics II, 241) gives the form-
ula: "Fill a basket with soil, and strain fresh water
through it. The taste of water strained through sour
soil will twist awry the taster's face."

I48I

C a t o* s Farm Management

lies low, plant rape, millet, and panic
grass.

Of Forage Crops

(Vlll) If you have a water
meadow you will not want forage,
but if not then sow an upland
meadow, so that hay may not be
lacking.

(liii) Save your hay when the
times comes, and beware lest you
mow too late. Mow before the seed
is ripe. House the best hay by itself,
so that you may feed it to the draft
cattle during the spring plowing, be-
fore the clover is mature.

(xxvil) Sow, for feed for the
cattle, clover, vetch, fenugreek, field
beans and pulse. Sow these crops a
second and a third time.^

1 Alfalfa was one of the standbys of ancient agri-
culture, as Arthur Young found it to be in France in
the XVIII Century, and as it is all over South-
ern Europe today. Cato does not himself mention
alfalfa, but according to Pliny it was introduced
into Italy from Greece, whence it had been brought
from Asia, during the Persian wars, and so derived

[49I

Cato's Farm Management

Of Pastures
(l) Manure the pastures in early,
spring in the dark of the moon,

its Roman name Medica. Varro (I, 42) praises it,
and Columella calls it the best of the legumes and
discusses its cultivation in interesting detail. Because
this plant in comparatively new in America and
because so many farmers are balked by the difficulty
of getting a stand of it, it is important to realize
the pains which the Romans took with the seed bed,
for it is on this point that most American farmers
fail. Says Columella (II, lo) :

"But of all the legumes, alfalfa is the best, be-
cause, when once it is sown, it lasts ten years: be-
cause it can be mowed four times, and even six
times, a year: because it improves the soil: because
all lean cattle grow fat by feeding upon it: because
it is a remedy for sick beasts: because a jugerum
(two-thirds of an acre) of it will feed three horses
plentifully for a year. We will teach you the man-
ner of cultivating it, as follows: The land which
you wish to set in alfalfa the following spring
should be broken up about the Kalends of October,
so that it may mellow through the entire winter.
About the Kalends of February harrow it thor-
oughly, remove all the stones and break up the clods.
Later, about the month of March, harrow it for the
third time. When you have so got the land in
good order, lay it off after the manner of a garden,
in beds ten feet wide and fifty feet long, so that it
may be possible to let in water by the paths, and
access on every side may be had by the weeders.
Then cover the beds with well rotted manure. At
last, about the end of April, sow plentifully so that
a single measure (cyanthus) of seed will cover a
space ten feet long and five wide. When you have
done this brush in the seed with wooden rakes: this
is most important for otherwise the sprouts will be
withered by the sun. After the sowing no iron tool

[50]

C at o' s Farm Management

when the west wind begins to blow.
rl) When you close your pastures (to the
\ stock) clean them and root out all
'\ weeds/

"^p should touch the beds: but, as I have said, they

'l" should be cultivated with wooden rakes, and in the

'• same manner they should be weeded so that no for-

^^' ij eign grass can choke out the young alfalfa. The

'"i I first cutting should be late, when the seed begins

'" ' to fall: afterwards, when it is well rooted, you can
cut it as young as you wish to feed to the stock.

^'" Feed it at first sparingly, until the stock become ac-

'^ customed to it, for it causes bloat and excess of

■'^ blood. After cutting, irrigate the beds frequently,

'^' jj and after a few days, when the roots begin to

"^ jj sprout, weed out all other kinds of grass. Cultivated

™ in this way alfalfa can be mowed six times a year,

'' and it will last for ten years."

1 As we have seen, Cato recommended chiefly a
system of intensive farming with the vine and the
olive as staples. On such a farm few live stock
were kept and they were largely fed in the barnyard,
so that the question of pastures was of relatively
small importance. In Varro's time the feeding of
large flocks of cattle and sheep had become of great
importance, and with this in mind Varro (I, 7)
makes one of his society of country gentlemen reply
to a quotation of Cato's scheme of laying out a
farm {ante p. 27) :

"I know he wrote that but every one does not
agree with him. There are some who put a good
pasture first, and I am among them. Our ancestors
were wont to call them not prata, as we do, but
farata (because they are always ready for use).
The aedile Caesar Vopiscus, in pleading a cause be-
fore the censors, once said that the prairie of Rosea

[51]

Cato's Farm Management

Of Feeding Live Stock
(xxx) As long as they are avail-
able, feed green leaves of elm, pop-
lar, oak and fig to your cattle and
sheep.

(v) Store leaves, also, to be fed
to the sheep before they have
withered.^

(xxx) Take the best of care of
your dry fodder, which you house
for the winter, and remember always
how long the winter may last.

was the nurse of Italy, because if one left his survey-
ing instruments there on the ground over night they
were lost next day in the growth of grass."

This sounds like the boast of the modern proprie-
tor of an old blue grass sod in Northern Virginia or
Kentucky.

But Cato was fully alive to the opportunity af-
forded by broad pastures of natural grass in an
entirely different system of farming. Pliny (N. H.
XVIII, 7) tells that Cato on being asked what was
the most certain source of profit in farming, re-
plied: "Good pasture land," and second, "Pretty
good pasture land." Columella (VI, 1) translates
this "feeding cattle," but the point of the anecdote
is the same.

1 Was this ensilage? The ancients had their silo
pits, but they used them chiefly as granaries, and as
such they are described, by Varro (I, 57, 63), by
Columella (I, 6), and by Pliny (XVIII, 30, 73).

[52I

C a t o* s Farm Management

(iv) Be sure you have well con-
structed stables furnished with sub-
stantial stalls and equipped with lat-
ticed feed racks. The intervals
between the bars of the racks should
be one foot. If you build them in
this way, the cattle will not waste
their food.

(liv) This is the way that proven-
der should be prepared and fed:
When the seeding is finished, gather
mast and soak it in water. Feed a
measure of it every day to each steer;
or if they have not been worked it
will be sufficient to let them pasture
the mast beds. Another good feed is
a measure of grape husks which you
shall have preserved in jars. By day
turn the cattle out and at night feed
twenty-five pounds of hay to each
steer. If hay is short, feed the leaves
of the ilex and ivy. Stack the straw
of wheat, barley, beans, vetch and
lupine, indeed all the grain straws,

153]

C a t 0 ^ s Farm Management

but pick out and house the best of it.
Scatter your straw with salt and you
can then feed it in place of hay.
When in the spring you begin to feed
(more heavily to prepare for work),
feed a measure of mast or of grape
husks, or a measure of ground lu-
pines, and fifteen pounds of hay.
When the clover is ripe, feed that
first. Gather it by hand so that it
will bloom a second time, for what
you harvest with the sickle blooms
no more. Feed clover until it is dry,
then feed vetch and then panic grass,
and after the panic grass feed elm
leaves. If you have poplar, mix that
with the elm so that the elm may last
the longer. If you have no elm feed
oak and ^g leaves.

Nothing is more profitable than to
take good care of your cattle.

Cattle should not be put out to
graze except in winter when they are
not worked; for when they eat green

I54l

C a t o* s Farm M a n a g e 7Ji e n t

Stuff they expect it all the time, and
it is then necessary to muzzle them
while they plow.

Of the Care of Live Stock
(v) The flocks and herds should
be well supplied with litter and their
feet kept clean. If litter is short,
haul in oak leaves, they will serve as
bedding for sheep and cattle. Be-
ware of scab among the sheep and
cattle. This comes from hunger and
exposure to rain.

(lxxii) To prevent the oxen from
wearing down their hoofs, anoint the
bottom of the hoof with liquid pep-
per before driving them on the high-
road.

(lxxiii) Take care that during
the summer the cattle drink only
sweet and fresh water. Their health
depends on it.

(XCVI) To prevent scab among
sheep, make a mixture of equal parts
[55]

Cato*s Farm Management

of well strained amurca,^ of water
in which lupine has been steeped, and
of lees of good wine. After shearing,
anoint all the flock with this mixture,
and let them sweat profusely for two
or three days. Then dip them in the
sea. If you have no sea water, make
salt water and dip then in that. If
you will do this they will suffer no
scab, they will have more and better
wool and they will not be molested
by ticks.

(lxxi) If an ox begins to sicken,
give him without delay a raw
hen's tgg and make him swallow it
whole. The next day make him
drink from a wooden bowl a measure
of wine in which has been scraped
the head of an onion. Both the ox

^ Amurca was the dregs of olive oil. Cato rec-
ommends its use for many purposes in the economy
of the farm, for a moth proof (XCVIII), as a relish
for cattle (CIII), as a fertilizer (CXXX), and as
an anointment for the threshing floor to kill weevil
(XCI).

[56]

Cato^s Farm Management

and his attendant should do these
things fasting and standing upright.

(Cll) If a serpent shall bite an
ox, or any other quadruped, take a
cup of that extract of fennel, which
the physicians call smyrnean, and
mix it with a measure of old wine.
Inject this through his nostrils and
at the same time poultice the wound
with hogs' dung.^ You can treat a
man the same way.

(CLX) If a bone is dislocated it
can be made sound by this incanta-
tion. Take a green reed four or five
feet long, cut it in the middle and let
two men hold the pieces against your
hips. Begin then to chant as follows :

In Alto. S. F, Motas

Vaeta,
Daries Dardaries Astataries Dis-

sunapiter,

and continue until the free ends of

1 There is a similar remedy for scratches in horses,
which is traditional in the cavalry service today, and
is extraordinarily efficacious.

157]

Cato^s Farm Management

the reed are brought slowly together
in front of you. Meanwhile, wave a
knife above the reeds, and when they
come together and one touches the
other, seize them in your hand and
cut them right and left. These pieces
of reed bound upon a dislocated or
fractured bone will cure it.

But every day repeat the incanta-
tion, or in place of it this one:

Huat Hanat Huat
1st a Pista Sista
Domiabo Damnaustra ^

Of Curing Hams
(CLXll) This is the way to cure
hams in jars or tubs : When you have
bought your hams trim off the hocks.
Take a half peck (semodius) of
ground Roman salt for each ham.

1 These examples will serve to illustrate how far
Cato's veterinary science was behind his agricul-
ture, and what a curious confusion of native good
sense and traditional superstition there was in his
method of caring for his live stock. On questions of
preventing malady he had the wisdom of experience,
but malady once arrived he was a simple pagan.

[58]

C a t o ' s Farm Management

Cover the bottom of the jar or tub
with salt and put in a ham, skin
down. Cover the whole with salt and
put another ham on top, and cover
this in the same manner. Be careful
that meat does not touch meat. So
proceed, and when you have packed
all the hams, cover the top with salt
so that no meat can be seen, and
smooth it out even. When the hams
have been in salt five days, take them
all out with the salt and repack them,
putting those which were on top at
the bottom. Cover them in the same
way with salt and press them down.

After the twelfth day remove the
hams finally, brush off the salt and
hang them for two days in the wind.
On the third day wipe them off clean
with a sponge and rub them with
(olive) oil. Then hang them in
smoke for two days, and on the third
day rub them with a mixture of
(olive) oil and vinegar.

[59l

Cato^s Farm Management

Then hang them in the meat house,
and neither bats nor worms will
touch them/

1 Cato gives many recipes of household as well as
agricultural economy. This one for curing hams is
selected because of its intrinsic interest and for com-
parison with the following traditional formula as
practiced in Virginia:

A VIRGINIA RECIPE FOR CURING HAMS
"Rub each ham separately with 5^ teaspoonful of
saltpetre (use a small spoon) ; then rub each ham
with a large tablespoonful of best black pepper;
then rub each ham with a gill of molasses (black
strap is best).

Then for i,ooo lbs. of ham take

3-^ pecks of coarse salt,
2Y2 lbs. of saltpetre,

2 qts. hickory ashes,

2 qts. molasses,

2 teacupfuls of red pepper.
Mix all together on the salting table. Then rub
each ham with this mixture, and, in packing, spread
some of it on each layer of ham. Use no more salt
than has been mixed. Pack skin down and let
stand for five weeks, then hang in the smoke house
for five or six weeks, and smoke in damp weather.
Use hickory wood for smoking if you can possibly
get it."

I60I

PRINTED BY R. R, DONNELLEY
AND SONS COMPANY, AT THE
LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL.

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14 DAY USE

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